Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with annoying

Is being overconfident in an interview or letter hurtful to getting a position?

Nighthawk3729 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:17:28 -0800

Are overconfident people really annoying to interviewers? Like if you act as if you know your accepted? Does this hurt one's chances of actually being accepted? I'm applying for a position right now and have started a requested writing. I had bounced around whether to write as if I had alreadly made the position. Things like, " the oppurtunity to work with this company is a great one, and I thank you for it."

I had done this before in positions I was pretty sure I had made, saying things such as,"it is a shame for the people who didn't make it into the program". Although I did make it, the interviewer kept on explaining the program if I did make it, saying that he wished to explain everything first before he confirmed whether or not I had been accepted. I had pushed it with that one because I had figured it was a scam, which is still a debat today. Long story short, it probably is.

I personally would imagine that being confident is good, but acting like you are alreadly accepted would cause irritation and should be avoided, what do you guys think?

In this case, I'm not going to even go there, I think it's hurtful, but I was wondering if it is annoying, probably, and if it hurts one's chances.

Making the most of a challenging coworker

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:40:33 -0800

How do I make the most of a work situation with a co-worker whose behavior is just annoying enough to disrupt work regularly, but not annoying enough to cause him to be fired? I work for a non-profit educational organization in a small department that is a sub-set of a larger department. I am the manager over one person, the said annoying co-worker. I say the following because I think it has some bearing on the situation: all members of the department are women except him.

Our office is pretty laid-back. He's worked here longer than I and even applied for my position. My boss and other members of our department are aware of his attitude and behavior. But it's not enough to get him fired, just enough to piss me off and others who might work with him.

Annoying traits:
- He is strictly reactive, and resists planning ahead, including using something like Basecamp.

- He routinely comes in late and takes longish lunches.

- He does things and forgets he does them - projects mentioned in meetings, meetings with others, etc.

- He says he tracks all of his stuff, but I've caught him unprepared. He still claims he does.

- He doesn't like to delegate to interns.

- He takes initiative, which is good, but on "fun" stuff like social networking, and I don't hear about it until he's spent a few hours on it.

- This is going to sound petty, I know, but I feel I must say it - I make an effort to thank him for his positive work, encourage his positive behavior, but I don't get the sense he sees or appreciates the effort that goes into some of the managerial work (big picture thinking, managing interns, assigning projects, being proactive) that I do. I guess I feel that the balance of positive appreciation is a little off?

- He complains... about our clients, about his workload, about meetings.

- He gets pissy with me if he senses that I'm micro-managing a little (ie asking about projects multiple times, asking what he's working on, giving priorities - doing my job).

He's basically been able to do what he wants until I got here. We've been able to make some strides in the department and his behavior has improved some, and we have even had a few "come to Jesus" meetings, but the problems are still there.

Not annoying traits:

- He has very good ideas on occasion that have helped us move forward.

- He does handle less complicated tasks well.

- We get along on a non-work, personal level. And this has complicated things even further.

When do I say when and put my foot down with my boss and ask her to reprimand him? My boss thinks we're outputting good work, but I see that we could do so much more - that's not really a "get you into big trouble" offense.

I have shared my concerns with my boss. I've tracked his lateness and his attitude. It's not quite enough to pull out the big guns so to speak, so I'm coming to terms that I may have to deal with this long term.

So, if I have to live with this - which it looks like I will - how do I make the most of it?

Thanks.

What bird is making this noise and what can I do about it?

Tin Man — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:54:03 -0800

What kind of bird is making this annoying noise (mp3 file; alternate link here) behind my Manhattan apartment building? And what can I do about it? This is our second summer living in our apartment in a residential area of Manhattan. During the spring and summer, we occasionally hear the above noise, which I assume is a birdcall, from somewhere behind our building. (You may have to turn up the volume a bit.) It went away during the winter, but then the weather got warm a few months ago and it started up again. Sometimes it happens every 10-20 seconds or every minute or every few minutes. Sometimes we don't hear it at all. Sometimes it's quite loud. It's usually during the daytime but sometimes at night. It's really annoying.

So I'm dying to know -- what kind of creature is making this noise?

Our apartment faces the back of the building, and there are other residential apartment buildings behind ours, so I assume someone behind us must own a bird and they have the windows open when the weather is warm. Or maybe some creature with a spring and summer migratory pattern roosts on a nearby roof. I've looked out the window numerous times scanning for birds in apartment windows and I haven't seen any. There's also more than one apartment building behind us, and sometimes sound can bounce around, so I have no idea where it's coming from.

Next question is, what can I do about it? I know the default answer would be to call 311, but how are they supposed to find a bird that makes noise only sometimes? Are the police supposed to come and hang around on the street for a few hours? What if they can't even hear it from the street?

So, (1) what kind of bird is it, and (2) what can I do?

Help us stop this!

St. Alia of the Bunnies — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:12:30 -0800

Business-to-business annoying telemarketing-and making it stop-help us, hive mind! Leaving out the gorey details, what legal recourse does a business have if another company keeps calling them -telemarketing calls-and we want them to stop? I know as a consumer at home all I have to do is get on a no call list or ask to be taken off their list and legally they must do so. Are businesses exempt from this rule or not-and if this other business keeps calling us what recourse do we have? They are very persistent, very annoying, and my boss would like these calls to be terminated with extreme prejudice. We are in NC if it matters.

Stop Gmail auto-adding to my contacts list?

wastelands — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:20:45 -0800

Gmail, can you please stop automatically adding to my contacts list!? How do I get Gmail to stop adding every single person I email -- even one-off crap -- to my contacts list? It bugs me because those addresses show up in the keyboard address completion when I'm adding contacts to a new email. I find myself regularly pruning the All Contacts list. Even stuff that's NOT in any contacts list will auto-complete when I'm typing in the To/CC/BCC fields.

I absolutely love Gmail, but this feature drives me nuts. I've looked through Settings, nothing. I've googled for help, no real luck.

MeFi to the rescue?

I love my parents but [cliche]

abdulf — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:13:37 -0800

My parents say I'll "always be their baby" and treat me accordingly (I'm turning 26 this year). This can be annoying at times. What are some workarounds? I'd like to think of myself as a "big picture" person. I'm thankful I have caring parents who are still alive. I also know they mean well and my life is better because they are around.

However, I find myself resenting them to some degree. This is largely a result of them trying to influence decisions I make.

It's fairly petty things that boil down to a matter of priorities and personal preferences. For example, my dad believes I need to use Ajax dishwashing soap. I bought some Dawn dishwashing soap that was on sale, because I like Dawn soap. When he found I had another dishwashing soap in my apartment, I was lectured.

Normally I communicate in disagreements. I explained why I bought the Dawn soap (it was less expensive, it works better in my opinion, I just needed some kind of soap).

But I then got another lecture on disregarding parental experiences and being young and foolish. Then he bought the Ajax soap. The next day I found my bottle of Dawn soap missing and in it's place a bottle of Ajax. I use Ajax to wash my dishes now.

"How boring and petty!" I think to myself as I write this.

If I had a boss do something like this at work, like question why I ordered a box of pens from brand x instead of brand y, I would not care because I have no real emotional connection with that person. But I don't know why this bothers me when a parent asks me to do the same.

Maybe in time, I will see their wisdom in these kinds of matters, but in the meantime it's damaging the relationship. I feel less interested in engaging with them because it feels like there is less to gain and more to lose (ex. getting lectured). In other words, I found myself being more passive-aggressive and communicating less around them.

People judge me all the time and it rolls right off me, but I can't seem to get past this. I don't like to resent people, especially close family. It would be a real shame to look back on these years wondering why I couldn't be a bigger person and put this aside.

How do I get around this?

What do I do with a querulous neighbor?

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:50:00 -0800

My downstairs neighbor seems hypersensitive to noise, and repeatedly complains and threatens to "tell" on me to our building supervisor. Advice? I am very quiet, and rarely have guests over. I rarely play music, but this neighbor, who lives directly downstairs from me, has repeatedly complained about even the noise of me walking across the floor, even barefoot. Ordinary conversation in normal tones of voice is offensive to her, at 8 a.m. in the morning.
I'm hardly a large person, and although the floor is hard wood, I walk quietly and rarely have company over. None of my other neighbors in any direction have ever complained. Nonetheless, this neighbor below has repeatedly come up, rung my doorbell at all hours of day and night, complained about the noise, and then threatened to report me to the manager.

Based on the fact that she has been in the building "15 years" and that I've only been here one, she claims that the management would surely be on her side, should she complain. Of course, I'd rather not take the chance, but I don't see how I could be much quieter than I am already!

I feel extremely harassed by this woman, and limited in my abilities to function in the apartment. I've already laid down a number of rugs to reduce what little noise I do make. Short of moving out and going apartment-hunting (not fun in this city), are there any other things I can do?

This building is relatively old, but has a mix of residents, some with children and some without. There are *clearly* really loud people, including some who party at all hours, and I honestly think I'm quieter than most.

This woman does seem a bit kooky, to put it kindly, and I'm not sure that management would take her complaints seriously, but I'd rather not take the risk. I just want to be able to live in my apartment without being harassed at the door on a frequent basis. Any advice for how to get this woman to stop?

Suggestions, both legal and otherwise, are welcome!

Wrong to be annoyed by neighbor?

gnash — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:08:30 -0800

[Annoying Neighbor Filter] Is it fair to consider a neighbor parking directly in front of the sidewalk that goes to the street into your house every day poor form? Especially on a snow day? This has been happening for years. My previous neighbor did it and my current neighbor does it. They don't have a garage (I guess) and choose to park in front of my house (and theirs) as it is the most direct path to their own home (directly across the street) and it is convenient to them.

Therein lies my problem. There is no consideration for others here in my opinion (myself as well as my visitors). I admit in these turbulent economic times, that this is a minor annoyance, but it burns my wick when I have shoveled a path for my 85 year old grandmother and said path is blocked.

Your input desired MeFites! Annoyance justified?

Hi, I'm from AT&T & I'm here to help you. Right.

pjern — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:44:13 -0800

I'm considering upgrading my internet service. I currently have basic DSL from AT&T bundled with a landline. Today a couple of guys with "AT&T uverse solutions provider" ID's came to the door and want to sell me this Uverse service. I'm suspicious. The sales droids (pretty slick guys, you know the type, have an answer for everything no matter how outrageous the objection is) are canvassing the neighborhood with handwritten lists of house numbers. I really don't think they work for AT&T, badges notwithstanding. They have simple sales presentation materials, but their general personas were kind of that of the old "door-to-door magazine salesman" milieu. They told me they are coming around to check up on people who haven't responded to any of the mailed offers for the Uverse service. Well, that part could be true enough- sales material that hits my mailbox detours to the trash can before I get back to the house from the mailbox. I blew them off by telling them my wife pays the phone bill.

I suspect they'll be back. Anyone have any experience dealing with these types of people? Could they be legit?

stop Firefox zooming

signal — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:38:18 -0800

How to stop Firefox from auto zooming the entire page. Firefox 3.0.1 will sometimes automatically decide to zoom pages (text+images) so they take up the whole window width. If I hit CTRL+0, it goes back to normal size.
Hunted through settings, about:config, google, etc., have not found where to turn it off.

Why do I annoy people?

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:45:42 -0800

I seem to annoy a lot of people. I don't mean to, it just happens. What can I do to become less annoying? I try to be a nice guy. I go out of my way to be nice to folks, but I inevitably annoy people.

For example, at work, I asked a girl if she was on a certain project and she just blew up at me. I tried to apologize, but she said I'm not sorry because I always do what I did to annoy her.

I can think of a couple of things that may be causing this:
1. I have an immature sense of humor: I try to keep this to myself and to a few firends, but it ends up slipping out here and there.

2. I try to please most people: I think this is a good thing, but perhaps people find this annoying.

I know some people here might need more explanation from me, so I set up a throwaway e-mail: annoyingtheworld@gmail.com

Thanks!

Will this little hair in my eye eventually go away?

bjork24 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:08:29 -0800

I have a tiny facial hair stuck in my eye. Will my body eventually reabsorb it or what? It doesn't hurt, but I can definitely feel it floating around the sphere of my eyeball like a microscopic Magellan. If I had health insurance, I'd go bug an eye doctor, but I don't, so I won't. I just want to know if that little bastard is going to dissolve and eventually be welcomed back into the fold.

Clingy like a barnacle.

moitz — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:23:40 -0800

How can I extract myself from a relationship with an overly-clingy (and engaged) coworker? Whole mess o' details inside. About a year and a half ago I violated one of my cardinal work rules: Never work with your play friends, never play with your work friends. I started hanging out with a girl from work, outside of work. Bad plan. Things progressed from friends to a good impression of dating (which brought it's own set of headaches at work, most of which have been dealt with), to me moving in with her (even worse plan), to me moving 50 miles away from her. However, we still work at the same company, on the same project(s).

She is insanely needy. She will call me 3 to 4 times a day, and multiple times in a row if I don't answer my phone. When her fiance is not around, she views me as her backup fiance. She is innapropriately affectionate for a friend, and as the result of a few months of loose morals on my part, thinks she still has carte blanche to touch my special bits at will. This bothers me, I keep telling her it bothers me and to knock it off, but she doesn't get the hint. At work, she throws a tantrum if I do not drop everything I'm doing to do something for her. Obviously, that kind of behavior is not professional, but I don't want her making a scene involving me, so I generally give in.

A few weeks ago I told her that I needed some distance from her, and she threw a temper tantrum. I held my ground on it, aided by her being out of the country. However, when she returned, it was back to business as usual, and surprise! I'm getting depressed as a result of my inability to get the hell away from her.

I can't begin to express how much this annoys me, and how much I want to just tell her that I don't want to see her outside of work at all. Any time I even come close to that, she throws a fit, and she has a bad habit of indulging in guilt trips (i.e. how I'm her only close friend) and personal attacks (speculating as to why I'm single). I'm generally fairly immune to those, but she carries them over to work. I am perfectly capable of maintaining an entirely professional relationship with her, and would LOVE for that to be the case, but she doesn't seem to be getting the hint.

So what do I do? I need to hear from her far less often outside of work. I need to be able to work with her at work. I cannot be her backup fiance, if for no other reason that it affects MY dating life. How the hell do I get myself out of this hole I've dug?

I can't stop stimming!

Schuby — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:25:00 -0800

How do I stop or redirect my annoying self-stimulated behaviors? Ever since I stopped taking my anxiety medication a while ago my annoying habits started popping up again. Twirling my watch, shaking my leg, tapping the desk, biting my fingernails, or even messing with my hair annoys me and I'm sure the people around me. I refuse to go back on my medication as the side effects were not appealing to me, so I'm hoping theres something I can do to limit my 'stimming.'

Goddamn it, I want my money back!? Please.

Asherah — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:46:55 -0800

Why does the recent legislation passed to patch the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) affect the applicability of Education Credits (IRS Form 8863) and delay my ability to file? I'm just stumped on how the retooling of the AMT affects my ability to file as I utilize the Lifetime Learning Credit. Are there details available anywhere via the web that discuss why this new legislation is delaying my ability to file? I am not and never have been subject to the AMT itself.

stop gsm static

brent_h — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:15:11 -0800

How can I make the damn GSM clicking from my iphone stop attacking my baby monitor? Does anyone know of a baby monitor that will not exhibit the damn clicking that is comes from my iphone?

Also, is there something I can do on the iphone side to stop the interference in all manner of devices, short of wrapping it completely in tinfoil?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM#Interference_with_audio_devices

Hey, Stop Chomping the Charmin!

WCityMike — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:45:48 -0800

I have a cat who is a wonderful and well-behaved affectionate little guy in most respects. He has an annoying compulsion I don't know how to cure: he loves to eat toilet paper and Kleenex. I've tried two things. I tried filling a can with coins, sealing it with duct tape, and resting it on top of the roll so that when he starts futzing around with the toilet paper, it would fall and the loud noise would scare him off. He got pinged once or twice by the can, then learned to ignore the roll for a while. I took off the can after he left the roll alone for about two weeks. About four to five days went by and he went back to savaging it.

I also tried a childproof/catproof toilet paper guard. Although he did not unroll the toilet paper, he savaged the heck out of one of the edges.

Additionally, if a Kleenex box is left on my desk, he will take a tissue out and start methodically ripping off pieces of it and eating it (and he knows he's not supposed to go on the desk, either).

This essentially means I need to keep my toilet paper roll resting on my towel rack and my Kleenex on an upper shelf in my closet. I can live with that if I need to; these are not tremendous problems but merely minor-to-middlin' annoyances. But I'd like these things back where they "should" be. (Rescrewing the toilet paper holder up high is something that occurred to me but is not feasible given I'm renting.)

He only does this late at night in the dark when I am in bed, either falling asleep or more usually when I'm already asleep; it's thus impossible for me to spray him with a water bottle in the act, which is the usual disciplinary measure.

Any clues on how to get the cat to once and for all quit it, or, barring that, any other kind of solutions to positively affect the situation?

Linkage to stuff on the Web detailing how people handled this problem also quite welcome.

How can I tell which of these damn Firefox tabs is making a sound?

k7lim — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:48:36 -0800

How can I tell which of these damn Firefox tabs is making a sound? Every time I open my browser, I default to the previous session, for a sense of continuity between uses; I don't like to feel like I lose track of a thread.

I usually have 10+ tabs open. When I open Firefox, there's generally some YouTube video URL in my prior session, and it will inevitably start playing audio. Same goes for MySpace pages; annoying. And the sound-playing pane is rarely up front, but is hiding behind many peer tabs.

I know to hit mute, but I want to solve another tier of this issue: I wanna be able to SELECT * FROM WINDOWS WHERE sound_playing=1; . In other (english) words,
I'd love to be able to expose all windows that are playing sounds. So I can selectively close them.

I know I can probably set up a way for these sites to not play on load, but a more interesting question is, is it feasible to program a way I could find out which program, and then if it's a multipane program, which tab/pane, is streaming audio out?

My guess is that such a solution would have to be written specifically for a given operating system, and could not be a Firefox extension or cross-platform widget.

NO STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

darksasami — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:22:49 -0800

What's the Stairway of the violin? I've just taken up the violin, and the first thing that I intended to learn (once I got past *&^% Twinkle) was Ashokan Farewell -- until I panicked momentarily with the fear that everybody goes for that one. My instructor has assured me that this isn't the case, but it led me to wonder: what is the song, or songs, that everyone in the biz groans inwardly when they hear it coming up as a recital or an audition piece?

I'm particularly interested in the violin, but I know that vocalists have "Memories," the bass has "Smoke on the Water," and of course there's always "Stairway to Heaven," so feel free to vent about the song you're sickest of hearing amateurs mangle.

What manner of animal is making this horrible noise?

geodave — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:53:11 -0800

Dear GOD what is making that racket in the tree outside my house? I'm in a suburb of Toronto, and this thing has been making this exact noise over and over, all night long, for the past week or so.

Listen to it here

It's a bad recording, made it with my laptop, but hopefully someone can identify it. I think it might be a squirrel but I've NEVER heard one this persistent and loud.

Daughter seeks escape from clingy, overbearing mother

desjardins — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:24:16 -0800

My mother has become very clingy. I have things I want to say to her but I don't want to hurt her, as it isn't her intent to hurt me. First off - yes, I am already seeing a therapist, and this has been discussed to some degree, though there have been more urgent issues as of late. This is ongoing background noise that has steadily increased in volume.

Since I got engaged two months ago, and moved (one state away from her) a few weeks ago, my mother has been nearly relentless with phone calls and visits and gifts. She wants to help us move. She wants to clean the new house. She wants to reupholster our (practically new) furniture (Wha?!).

Some very relevant background: She is bipolar, and while she's well-medicated now, she neglected to take her meds while I was a child. There was a lot of craziness: mostly verbal abuse, some physical, and a ton of emotional, um, irregularity. Of course, no one told me that she was mentally ill, so I just thought I deserved it, which led to a lot of self-destruction, and later, anger at her. (by the way, I was an only child, and my parents were divorced, so I bore the full brunt of her nutty episodes.) After a lot of therapy and discussions with her, I have totally forgiven her for what she's done in the past. Really, I have (not sarcastic).

But this new behavior is really getting irritating. I've had to put my foot down a few times and say "No, Keith and I don't have time to come up there for dinner" (2 hour drive). "Thanks for your offer of assistance but we're all set with the move." She acts like she's listening, and a day later she'll say the same thing. Since her intent is to be helpful, I get wore down and finally accept. For example, she's insistent on getting me a subscription to a wedding magazine even though I won't read it and it's a waste of money & paper. She's also bought me a book of wedding vows and bookmarked a few she thought I'd like (GRRRR). I am really overwhelmed with a bunch of other things in my life, and fighting her is one more thing I don't need.

As I write this, it occurs to me that she's probably in a manic phase where she's trying to do 10,000 things at once. I know I can't use reason to talk her out of that. I do want to write a letter describing the effect it's having on me, but I'm having trouble with the wording. Here's what I've got so far:

I feel pressured when you want to do something for me, because it often creates a burden on me.

I feel like I'm obligated to be your friend because you don't have any others. I feel as if I'm a project for you. I feel like you don't listen to what I really want, or don't allow me the space to decide what that is.

I feel like you're not being genuine, like you've put up a shell around yourself, and the phoniness really irritates me. I would rather you just be honest with me. I feel like you're still trying to shelter me.

Hive mind, I'm looking for ways to express myself better in a non-hurtful way. I'm also looking for any other tactics to deal with her behavior in the short term, as I really can't afford any more emotional hemorrhaging this month.

How do I hush an annoying coworker?

jacobjacobs — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:28:55 -0800

How can I deal with an annoying coworker who talks to me too much? I have a coworker who really gets under my skin; I don't actually work w/ him that much but we share a room, 2 cubes, together all day. He talks a lot, an hour or two a day, and I'm nice enough to be minimally responsive which is just enough to keep him talking about his favorite subject: himself. It's often entertaining, but his rants and stories usually have an underlying condescending tone to them, but nevertheless, I don't want to hear about how "awesome" he is anymore.

Some nights I cannot sleep b/c I dread having to face him in the morning; I often rehearse arguments and insults that rarely come to light for hours. I want to stop thinking about this -- I realize this is partially my own problem.

As far as disrupting work, it's usually not a problem, I'm not that busy and if I am I can shrug him off. It is a problem for him though: he's 15 years older than me (I'm 26) and has a bit more responsibility and his David Brent-esque and/or expert-on-everything monologues cost him a lot of work-time.

This is the 2 year anniversary of being moved in with him, how can I make him stop talking to me? Or, how can I let his personality not affect me? Are there any articles about the subject, or any place to share my many funny stories / rants?

Stop! Blinking!

travosaurus — Sun, 27 May 2007 22:42:41 -0800

How do I turn off the annoying "this is all the white in your photo" 'feature' on my Nikon D80? On playback, I can see all my photos on the LCD screen but all the pure white areas blink white to black. It annoys me to no end. I know the feature is useful for a few reasons, but mainly I want to disable it and for the life of me I can't figure out how. HALP!

Loud-mouthed coworker shares TMI...

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 23:43:57 -0800

How to deal with a loud-mouthed coworker? So how can I deal with and/or block out a work colleague sitting on the other side of a cube who talks incessantly, making mainly personal calls for upwards of 2-3 hours per day? In her non-phone conversation she is also quite loud. I'm not in her department (thankfully...) but based on my physical position, when she's not around I hear her dept. colleagues talk about how she also gets on their nerves consistently and how they have to pick up the slack for the work she doesn't get finished due to her lolly-gagging.

Is this just a question of learning how to effectively block out the behavior of another person, or do I have the right to politely go to her supervisor, explain my position with the possibility that he/she may intervene? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My LCDs got the blues

bkudria — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:46:55 -0800

My 2-year old LCD has a blue vertical line for anything not white. Can it be fixed? I have a two-year old LCD that has a vertical line of stuck pixels. Any color on that line is now blue, with blue blue if the background is dark and a lighter blue depending on the color value. Total white makes the line go away.

It's not a software problem, the line appears even at POST, and it's not a cable problem, because the "No Signal Input" message displayed when the cable is disconnected also has the line.

So, my question is, can I make the line go away? I'm not averse to opening the display to fix it, but only if you guys suggest it - I wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

The monitor is a Samsung Syncmaster 915n, running at native resolution (1280x1024) but the line appears on a non-native resolution as well. If it's relevant, the monitor is connected to my laptop with a VGA cable.